Walters Art Museum / Johns Hopkins University
February 2012
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The final project for students enrolled in the course Behind the Scenes at the Walters Art Museum: Material Migrations, offered at the Walters Art Museum through Johns Hopkins University, was to trace the provenance of museum objects and describe their historical significance through Google Earth tours. This case study features the work of three students. Their tours, as well as those of several others, have been published by the Walters Art Museum as part of the online exhibit Art on the Move.
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Art on the Move was an outcome of the course Behind the Scenes at the Walters Art Museum: Material Migrations, offered at the Walters Art Museum through the Program in Museums and Societyat Johns Hopkins University in the fall of 2009. Elizabeth Rodini and Ben Tilghman were co-instructors and, with the technical guidance of Reid Sczerba, Multimedia Development Specialist in the university’s Center for Educational Resources, devised and oversaw this project. The course and project were funded by an Arts Innovation Grant from Johns Hopkins.
investigating the various ways/means/motives for the circulation of objects, and considering how meaning is shaped by context, from antiquity to the present and including the museum itself;
conducting in-depth, independent research on objects in the Walters’ collection;
experimenting with different styles of writing and narration;
learning about different areas of museum practice, including curation, conservation, registration, and education;
applying these experiences to the production of interpretative tools for public audiences of the Walters, in the form of Google Earth itineraries.
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Each student will choose two* objects from the Walters collection to research, focusing on the “trajectory” of the objects and their shifting significance in different contexts. Research will involve studying the objects and object files at the museum as well as work in the Johns Hopkins University library and online. That work will be analyzed, interpreted, and gathered into a Google Earth Map “itinerary” for each object. Why? To share what we are learning with the public. This is a fundamental task of museums, and in this course we extended that mission to the undergraduate classroom.
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(*The seven students worked on two objects each; we selected some of these for the final presentation on the Walters website.)
Mapping the Provenance of Museum Objects
Walters Art Museum / Johns Hopkins University
February 2012
¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 The final project for students enrolled in the course Behind the Scenes at the Walters Art Museum: Material Migrations, offered at the Walters Art Museum through Johns Hopkins University, was to trace the provenance of museum objects and describe their historical significance through Google Earth tours. This case study features the work of three students. Their tours, as well as those of several others, have been published by the Walters Art Museum as part of the online exhibit Art on the Move.
Student Work
Dakota Devos’ tour following the Antiphonary for Abbess of Sainte-Marie of Beaupré, ink on parchment (Flemish, 1290).
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Student Work
Elizabeth Dowdle’s tour following Capitoline Amazon, marble (Roman copy after Kresilas, Greek, active ca. 450 BC – 420 BC).
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Student Work
Joan Tkacs’ tour following an ivory Casket with Scenes of Romances, ivory and bone with modern iron mounts (French, 1330-1350).
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Project Description/Syllabus
Project Description
¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Art on the Move was an outcome of the course Behind the Scenes at the Walters Art Museum: Material Migrations, offered at the Walters Art Museum through the Program in Museums and Societyat Johns Hopkins University in the fall of 2009. Elizabeth Rodini and Ben Tilghman were co-instructors and, with the technical guidance of Reid Sczerba, Multimedia Development Specialist in the university’s Center for Educational Resources, devised and oversaw this project. The course and project were funded by an Arts Innovation Grant from Johns Hopkins.
Excerpt from course syllabus:
¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 The goals of this class can be broken down into several categories:
¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Each student will choose two* objects from the Walters collection to research, focusing on the “trajectory” of the objects and their shifting significance in different contexts. Research will involve studying the objects and object files at the museum as well as work in the Johns Hopkins University library and online. That work will be analyzed, interpreted, and gathered into a Google Earth Map “itinerary” for each object. Why? To share what we are learning with the public. This is a fundamental task of museums, and in this course we extended that mission to the undergraduate classroom.
¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 (*The seven students worked on two objects each; we selected some of these for the final presentation on the Walters website.)
More Information
Student Commentary
Dakota Devos
BA in History of Art, Class of 2011 – Johns Hopkins University
Read CommentaryStudent Commentary
Elizabeth Dowdle
BA in History of Science, Medicine and Technology, Class of 2011 – Johns Hopkins University
Read CommentaryStudent Commentary
Joan Tkacs
BA in History of Art, Class of 2010 – Johns Hopkins University
Read CommentaryProject Leader Commentary
Elizabeth Rodini
Director, Program in Museums and Society; Teaching Professor of the History of Art – Johns Hopkins University
Read CommentaryStaff Commentary
Reid Sczerba
Multimedia Development Specialist, Center for Educational Resources – Johns Hopkins University
Read CommentaryFootnotes
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